June 19, 2007

It's clever, the way the video uses the jukebox business from the last "Sopranos" episode to remind us of Hillary's theme song contest. In case you care, I'll just tell you that the winner is "You and I," sung by Celine Dion, and if for some reason, you actually want to listen to that song, click here.

So what do we think of this video? The NYT political blogger Kate Phillips proclaims it "the best campaign spot we’ve seen this season." I don't think so. It was amusing seeing a cameo from Johnny Sack, but I've got some problems.

1. Not everyone gets HBO, so you've got a cultural reference that's a bit elitist. And some people wait for the DVDs, and they rankle at spoilers. But maybe everyone's supposed to have heard about the ending by now. Still, it might rub you the wrong way, to assume familiarity with "The Sopranos." And lots of Americans don't even approve of watching a show that is permeated with violence, obscene language, graphic sex, and the subjugation of women.

2. Do we really want to think of Bill and Hillary sitting in for Tony and Carmela? Tony is a monstrous criminal and Carmela willfully blinds herself to his horrible flaws so that she can keep living in a highly desirable house. Are these good associations for Hillary?

3. Bill is a much better actor than Hillary, and this heightens the sense that she's a pale substitute for the old President we can no longer have.

4. Bill says "No onion rings?" and Hillary responds "I'm looking out for ya." Now, the script says onion rings, because that's what the Sopranos were eating in that final scene, but I doubt if any blogger will disagree with my assertion that, coming from Bill Clinton, the "O" of an onion ring is a vagina symbol. Hillary says no to that, driving the symbolism home. She's "looking out" all right, vigilant over her husband, denying him the sustenance he craves. What does she have for him? Carrot sticks! The one closest to the camera has a rather disgusting greasy sheen to it. Here, Bill, in retaliation for all of your excessive "O" consumption, you may have a large bowl of phallic symbols! When we hear him say "No onion rings?," the camera is on her, and Bill is off-screen, but at the bottom of the screen we see the carrot/phallus he's holding toward her. Oh, yes, I know that Hillary supplying carrots is supposed to remind that Hillary will provide us with health care, that she's "looking out for" us, but come on, they're carrots! Everyone knows carrots are phallic symbols. But they're cut up into little carrot sticks, you say? Just listen to yourself! I'm not going to point out everything.

ADDED: 5. The scene, as derived from "The Sopranos," is designed to create anxiety that an assassination is about to take place. Having Johnny Sack walk by and glare at her preserves that feeling of threat. It's supposed to work because with "The Sopranos," we were waiting to find out how the series would end, but here we are waiting to learn the outcome of the song contest, but it's pushing the envelope for the campaign to suggest an act of violence toward the candidate.

UPDATE: This post has spawned a whole subgenre of anti-Althousiana. I discuss that here.

A quirky post about a Clinton campaign video touched off a giant blog swarm and what I think was my highest traffic day ever. Based on an earlier blog swarm last September, I now know that what sets the left blogosphere into intense, concerted action is calling attention to Bill Clinton's old sexual problems. I wonder why....

I just want to emphasize that I stand by my original sexual interpretation. You've got a married couple talking about two foods, one of which is obviously a hole, and the other of which is so clearly phallic that this Google search gets over 70,000 hits.

The man wants the hole-shaped item, and the woman forbids it. She insists that he confine himself to the phallic item, which has been sliced down to puny, thin stick form. The man looks at it sadly, and the woman tells him it's for his own good. If you don't see sexual imagery there, you exist on a very narrow band of human imagination....

When Clinton sadly bites into the carrot stick of his own castration, it makes a crunch noise -- ouch! -- and it's that noise that causes the ominous looking man at the bar ("Johnny Sack") to turn and look at him. He then walks by and gives him a glare. What does that glare mean in the Clinton video? I think it means: "What kind of man are you?"

I never followed the Sopranos (nor did I see the last episode), so I'd have to agree with you about the first point. Because I didn't catch that reference, I just assumed they were going to a neighborhood diner someplace near Chappaqua. Still, the reference to Chelsea parking the car probably doesn't make much sense without having seen the episode. And the ending of the commercial clearly depends on at least a familiarity with what happened at the end of the episode--which has been written about all over the place in the last week and a half.

I really like your first point #2, though--why would Bill and Hillary want to compare themselves to Tony and Carmela? And the second point #2 (oops!)--about Bill being a better actor than Hillary--is a good one also.

With regard to point #3 (about the onion rings), I think such a reading is not unwarranted, but I also want to say sometimes an onion ring is just an onion ring. After all, even if we're just talking about onion rings, I think that the clip will only reinforce some of Hillary's long-established negatives about being an advocate for the "nanny state" or reminding too many men of some controlling or nagging woman that they're not fond of (either because they're married to her or they once were or they once had a relationship with such a woman).

I've been saying for weeks that the voices in Ann's head were getting louder and louder.

She's reaching meltdown, folks.

Seriously, the preening narcissist and one-woman non-sequitur generator is, I think, only one glass of chardonnay away from buying and Uzi and taking out 30 college kids while vlogging an American Idol rerun.

I think the onion rings are probably meant to evoke the Pre-Lewinski comedy schtick poking fun at Clinton's pudginess and weakness for fast food. There was a great early/mid-nineties SNL skit that had him jog into a McDonalds and make small talk with star-struck strangers, all the while taking bites of their sandwiches.

I think that's probably an affectionate memory of Clinton in the minds of many, fictional or no. The onion rings gag evokes this nostalgia, and makes Hilary seem like a good, caring wife.

That, and onion rings don't seem like a very ready stand in for the vagina. I suppose it's possible I've just been very lucky in my private life.

Jesus. Put up a mildly sardonic view of a Clinton product and the mannerly, intellectual responses overwhelm you.

Ann, some good thought there. Under-the-surface message and subliminal image is what advertising is all about. And it's often VERY Freudian, full of sex and violence. Your esteemed panel of commenters here must not work on Madison Ave. Maybe Sesame Street?

Kurt said: "the reference to Chelsea parking the car probably doesn't make much sense without having seen the episode."

Yes, that didn't even make an impression on me (I had a fleeting question mark about the relevance of Chelsea being a bad driver, then promptly forgot about it).

Kurt said: "the ending of the commercial clearly depends on at least a familiarity with what happened at the end of the episode--which has been written about all over the place in the last week and a half."

Yes, I know about the ending.

Kurt said: "I think that the clip will only reinforce some of Hillary's long-established negatives about being an advocate for the "nanny state" "

Mike said...Kurt: "'the reference to Chelsea parking the car probably doesn't make much sense without having seen the episode.' Yes, that didn't even make an impression on me (I had a fleeting question mark about the relevance of Chelsea being a bad driver, then promptly forgot about it)."

For anyone who doesn't know the "Sopranos" scene, it should seem sexist to portray the daughter as a bad driver and to have the father smirking about it.

President Bush choked on a pretzel. This was subliminally a manifestation of his masturbation addiction.

The oval office rug, carpet, and poor Barney all had to be dry cleaned. Bush stuck the pretzel in his mouth as a means to auto-erotic fixation. He fixated on his task, like he fixates on outdoing his father in Iraq.

Ann--I gotta tell you, Professor--I think you over-analyzed this one. Never having seen a sopranos episode, I still have been able to follow the general plot line--esp with the hullablo about the final episode.

My take on this is its a hell of a good effort to inject a bit of humor into a political campaign--I give her credit for trying. The more people attack Hillary, the more I am coming to like her (among the bloviators that make up the democratic field). Yeah, she's a creature of the polls, but I think she has a spine. In fact, I have enjoyed her not backing down on her vote for AUMF. She's not a saint; she's a politician.

As an aside, seems like the crew from NYMary's blog are out in force today. Slow day in the reality-based community boys and girls? Why don't you folks volunteer to be human shields to save the darfur refugees from the janjuweed militias--satisfy your progressive impulses! Do something good

I have an automatic filtering device in my brain when it comes to most commercials (unless they feature a dog or cat, in which case I am riveted), so for what it's worth:

I don't have HBO, I've never watched the Sopranos and I wouldn't have known the ad was based on a Sopranos theme. I also had no idea Hillary had a campaign song contest going.

When I saw the carrots, I thought "where are the wings?" The oddest thing in the ad to me was the "focus on the good times" remark. It caused me to wonder about the other times when they may have said that to each other.

You gotta remember that the Clintons didn't put the onion rings in there, David Chase did. And in the Sopranos final episode they stood in for communion wafers. So I didn't think it was any kind of sexual reference.

It was just a reference to Bill's love of junk food and a reminder that he had heart surgery and needs to eat healthy food. His wife is looking out for him. That's nice.

I wouldn't worry. I'm betting Madison is a gun free zone so I'm sure you're perfectly safe. Besides, Uzi's are so 1980s, kind of like ponytails on men.If I had to guess, I'm thinking Professor Althouse is a HK 416.

I think a lot of you peeps have some serious anger management issues. And to think you progressives are supposed to be laid back.

You can see the links to this post at the bottom of the page. This is a very vortextual post

Fear the power of the vortex!

I really don't get people who hang around blogs written by people they don't like. What's the point? When I think a blogger's an idiot I just stop reading the blog. Some of them, like Doyle and Lucky, are supposedly just here to make Ann look bad. But since most of the people here like Ann, insults directed at her have the net effect of making the person throwing them look bad. Are their egos just so inflated that they don't get that?

As someone who has only seen the first couple of episodes of The Sopranos ...

I thought the ad was cute. The parallel parking bit was just a normal kind of family dynamic.

The ad also made a nice counterpoint to the meme from the 2004 campaign when Kerry, or maybe it was his wife, had to ask about the menu at a dairy queen. Fair or not, we were left thinking the guy had no clue about how the rest of us live.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Bill Clinton. My pop culture reference to the carrot sticks was to the episode of Babylon 5 I watched last night wherein Dr. Franklin puts the command staff on a diet. It was funny.

The guy with the dirty look was her acknowledgement that there are some people who will never ever like her, no matter what she does.

Like I said, it was cute. And I am someone Hillary lost long ago with the paranoid "vast right-wing conspiracy" comment.

Ann, I think your points 2 and 3 are completely on target. Very insightful!

Your onion ring/carrot analysis is a little out there, IMHO. Like Kurt, I immediately thought/cringed, "Ooh, nanny state," as Hillary said, "Just looking out for ya." That line was just a horrible choice and plays right into conservative arguments.

Normally, I would have found the parallel parking joke rather sexist but somehow, for me, it didn't seem so bad because, after all, this is an ad proposing a woman to be the next leader of the free world. (True confession: I can't parallel park, but I always figure, "I'm a brilliant lawyer so who cares?")

All in all: I thought the ad was endearing, but unlikely to appeal to people outside of Hillary's base. Also, this was the first time I ever found Bill charming. His much vaunted charm had always escaped me in the past.

A couple of last thoughts: This may be the only political ad I have ever seen in my life that didn't turn me off. I am a Democrat who has never been too crazy about Hillary, but will likely vote for either Hillary or Obama. This ad may have scored a teeny subliminal point for Hillary in my mind.

Lay off the wine boxes. Says trademark dave. You say this same insult in practically every thread. Can't you come up with something more creative once in a while?

It doesn't even make much sense as an insult, since box wine isn't associated with people who drink too much. Winos drink Thunderbird and high-class drunks drink pinot noir. Box wine is consumed by middle-class married couples looking for something cheap to make punch with for their holiday parties.

Rev--I have to tell you that there is some excellent wine being put into boxes--Teftt cellars in Eastern WA has a great cab-merlot; some of the aussie reds are excellent--and they keep much better. Try Banrock Station if you can get it.

And as long as we're pointing out over-used and lame-to-begin-with Althouse insults, how about this new "one-woman non-sequitur generator"?

I think it was coined a week or so ago by Glenn Kenny, who (I may be mistaken*) didn't seem to mean it as an insult. It's a comment about the breadth of her interests, right?. You know: Supreme Court, Flowers, Politics, Politics, Dead Bird...

Anyway, the trolls have picked it up and keep calling her that like it's a really cutting insult. Ah well. Pillow Fight!

That's a good trick, writing a phrase ("carrots are phallic symbols") in a blog entry that immediately turns up on top of the Google search page for that phrase. I guess Google is as deep into the vortex as anyone here... Now, to Google "bug fuck crazy"...

Echo ¶3 of Kurt's 4:00 PM and Roost on the Moon's 4:07 PM and Margaret's 5:59 PM in their entirety. The onion thing's a bit of a reach.

Revenant said..."Box wine is consumed by middle-class married couples looking for something cheap to make punch with for their holiday parties."

I tell you what, a box of Black Tower in the fridge is one of the few things I miss about England. I've yet to see it for sale in the U.S. outside of a restaurant in Chicago one time. If anyone knows a good place online that ships, I'd be happy to get sloshed in honor of the liquored-up and liquorous contingent of the anti-althousiana. ;)

David - democracy would be a lot easier if we didn't have to give a vote all those stupid people who don't agree with us, huh? Perhaps there should be some kind of test. (Administered in English and Spanish, of course.)

I can't say much about the ad, having never seen any of The Soprano's, but the Chelsea bit struck me as odd.

She might have been a novice driver when President Clinton was in office, but she is 27 now and it is kind of time-warpish to still think of her as if no time has passed since their days in the Whitehouse.

I suspect that they just wanted to provide as many elements from the show as they could and if they sacrificed logic--well, so be it.

The onion rings might not qualify as sexual symbols, but the "librulz" round these parts are certainly rubbing one out tonight over Althouse mentioning them.

An amusing thought experiment: when you read a comment from "Doyle" or "dave®€" or one of the other anonymous twatbots with droll screen names, imagine they wrote it while stroking their undersized phalli...

Honestly, Ann, [grunt] you really need [gasp] to get help. Soon. This obsession [grunt] can't be good for you [wheeze] or your students...

I know it's an unpleasant thought experiment, but it certainly explains their seemingly uncontrollable need to, uh, unburden themselves at the slightest provocation. And it makes reading their boring, predictable, humorless and repetitive comments slightly more interesting.

As for the prudish "You're the ones allowed to vote?! - You have a dirty mind - You, a law professor" types, perhaps they need to put the carrot into the onion ring a little more often and lighten up.

Me, I thought Althouse's post was funny. I'm finding it funnier to think I might get to be a moonbat, as change of pace from being a wingnut, as defined by who-the-hell-ever. (Though I'm certain I'm not responsible for actual traffic, much less comments.)

Look, the whole thing was just weird. They try so, so, so hard to be the average Americans, that their failure at it just shows right through. Why do they have to go to such lengths to try and humanize or soften this womans image only belies the fact that peoples perception of here, rightly or wrongly, is not good.

Aside from her political aspirations and political policies, trying to elevate this woman to presidential caliber because her husband was one is foolish. You only have to look at her record as a short time junior senator of the state of New York to see that she is utterly incapable of leading an entire country. Others have already connected her dots in a dynamic portrait that is Hillary Clinton and that portrait doesn't really look that good. Under any light.

Because this is the Clintons the video is absoutely awful. If it would of been any of the republicans it would of been like totally cool but it isn't so it like totally sucks.

Excellent analysis. If this was the Romneys or Giulani (especially) I would of went gaga but because it is the Clinton's it makes me so mad and I need to analyze it to pieces and find vaginal symbolism in onion rings and penis sybolism in carrots.

I bet when the Clintons did this they said no onion rings-too much like a vagina. Their are truly wicked.

Also, the Sopranos are totally elitist being on HBO and all that high falutin pay cable "artsy" station.

Also, what a spoiler for the Clinton's to air this. Think of all the pour souls who haven't seen the ending and now their hopes and dreams are shattered because their were "waiting for it to come out on dvd".

Your "analysis" of this is completely psychotic. How long did it take you to come up with this stuff? What is going on in that mind? Anyway, at least the analysis is moderate the way we love our blogger.

The Clinton's have no shame. But it Rudy did it it would of been totally awesome.

Ann A. said....."I'm very interested in what the scene looks like to people who don't know the references."

I may well be the only person here who has never (thats right, never!) seen even one episode of "The Sopranos". In fact, I dont even know the name of the actor who plays Tony. So, I obviously qualify as one who doesnt "know the references". I saw the commercial for the first time earlier this evening while channel surfing, and had no clue it was a take off of the final Sopranos show while watching.

What did the scene look like to me? Well, my first impression was a feeling of utter disgust. But I am honest enough to admit that I get disgusted just about every time I see either one of them on TV. So, after a quick trip to the bathroom with my favorite gagging spoon, followed by chugging down a 16 ounce tumbler of Bromo Seltzer, I was able to view the bit a little more objectively. My verdict? It worked!... and on a few different levels.

First off, I have never seen Hillary with a more pleasant and even feminine expression on her face. And then there was good old Bubba playing with his carrots (sometimes a carrot is just a carrot) - eyeing his loving wife like a kid would look at his mom while trying to sneak a candy bar before dinner. Add Chelsea (outside parking the "family" car) into the mix and you have one GREAT modern day political ad. Does the ad have anything to do with actual politics though? No, not unless all one cares about is voting for a "nanny state".

Speaking as one who has worked on 'Madison Avenue,' you're out of your skull.

Firstly, 'Madison Avenue' is embarrasing, circa-1982 terminology that remains alive only in news writing, despite the continual mockery of those in the business. To claim some currency in advertising and to use the term 'Madison Avenue' blows you out of the water right from the start. It's a little like saying you're down with what's going on in 'Frisco.'

Second, not a single advertising writer thinks that way. Not consciously. Not subliminally. I say this as someone who knows chapter and verse of the work of, lessee, a couple hundred of the better ones.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, sticking to the things you know a something about is a very very good idea.

Jane, read more slowly. It's an outdated term not used by those in the business. If you're going to claim some kind of intimacy, using an outdated term rather blows your cover. Nobody, not a single person, not one, who is in advertsing, knows advertising or watches the agency business except for news writers (again, read more slowly, because I included news writers the first time) uses the term 'Madison Avenue.' Metonymy is a nice shiny nickel of a word, golf clap for that, haven't used it above fifty times myself, go English majors.

And yes, Ann didn't say 'Madison Avenue'--I should have directed my comment to the commenter.

Well, we've seen the Clinton War Room V3.0 rapid response team begin to click in.

And, judging by the responses so far, its obvious they put their absolute best minds, the senior political staff, in charge of their early efforts.

Wait...I'm one of Clinton's "Rapid Response Team"? When did this happen?

You people are crazier than a pack of rats in a coffee can. I've run into some true wackos on the 'net, but y'all take the cake, the pie, and all the doughnuts in the display case. Are you people really allowed to run loose?

1) Anyone putting Bill Clinton in a commercial better be hyperaware of innuendo and double entendres, especially if your point is to sell BC version 2.0 or something, you know, the one that has ED or is a eunuch or something. Failing to pay attention to that is sheer incompetence.

2) Anyone putting Bill and Hillary together and trying to gain new voters (not merely their base) better also be hyperalert to any hidden meanings in dialogue, props, set-up, etc. Failure to do so is sheer incompetence, willfull ignorance, or a death wish.

3) Madison Avenue remains the common term to refer to the advertising agency as a whole. Insiders might hate it, but the public hates insiders.

Bear in mind that Ann was an art student. She could probably find sexual symbolism in a bowl of grits if called upon to do so. This is what too much deconstruction will get you. :)

Anyway, I thought the video was a pretty clever Sopranos reference, but it is just going to seem weird to people who didn't see the series finale. Bill and Hillary... in a diner? Bill, sure, but Hillary? I'm also not sure if it was smart to play up Hillary's nanny side like that, since that's a major negative of hers with male voters (i.e., with the majority of people who'd get the Sopranos reference in the first place).

Come to think of it, The Onion Ring Monologues is a lot less embarrassing to say and probably would be presented in better taste and a crisper format, too :)

But only third-graders react in shock to the very idea of rings and sticks, onions and carrots, suggesting anything at all other than grandma's stew... if they're highlighted in the sainted Clintons' video. But if it were a blonde and a banana in a spot for anything else, then well the little boys here would be all a'titter.

I feel very sorry for you. I don't know what happened in your life to create such hatred and vitriol towards others but you really need help. To take a parody of a show and catapult its premise into a statement of Hillary vs Vaginas is but a frightening peek into your self-hating little mind. I believe there are doctors out there who can help you and I wish you luck conquering your manias.

A black cat is buried in my backyard. Round fish swim in the tidal pond. Strangly shaped birds hover in the air. A voice on my radio says "John has a long moustache". I get an email saying "Wounds my heart with a monotonous languor" over and over.

Strange men with rifles appear in the woods. Sophia Loren rides a bike....in the distance bagpipes play...

What's really funny about this post is how easy it was to tweak the noses of the Glenn Greenwald-firedoglake set with a dada-Paglia riff on the Clintons, something usually limited to crit-lit feminist journals and Maureen Dowd.

hdhouse, I could probably get a lot of attention and blog hits if I stripped naked, painted my blog URL on my ass, and tried to scale the fence at the White House, but I doubt that anyone would take me seriously as a political commentator afterwards.

If all Professor A. wants is blog hits, well then I reckon she's done what she set out to do. But I doubt that's ALL she wants. When your marketing undercuts the credibility of your product, that's not a good thing, wouldn't you agree?

I doubt if any blogger will disagree with my assertion that, coming from Bill Clinton, the "O" of an onion ring is a vagina symbol.

Two things are converging here at once:

1. the rightwing's obsession with Bill and Hillary Clinton2. Freud

The rightwing's obsession with Bill and Hillary Clinton started with the Arkansas project and grew to infect the MSM. However, it's stunning to see the pandemic reach academia.

The claim that Bill Clinton uttering "onion rings" is a vaginal reference because the word onion has an "O" in it, harkens back to Freudian theory that during the phallic stage, a daughter becomes attached to her father and more hostile towards her mother and developes penis-envy.

JD...she is cruising along at about 2000 hits an hour at least and probably brining in a lot of new people....i agree with your premise but assert that those who know her realize this isn't normal and those who don't read that it is abnormal in the posts.

Maybe the onion ring represents Bill's administration, the way things were when he was in charge, while the carrot is how Hillary is going to run things. The onion ring is Monica, the delicious tramp that felt good while it was going down, yet was so bad for you and made you sick to your stomach a half hour later. The carrot is Hillary, the plain, boring, everyday staple that is uninspiring but safe to eat. The onion ring gave Bill the things that the carrot would not give him.

Now, Hillary is assertively telling the nation, there will be no Monica's in her White House, Bill will eat what I tell him to, and will keep it zipped up.

As an aside to the left wing sniping. The larger issue shouldn't be whether a blogger is having fun at the Clinton's expense and that represents the emptiness of those who oppose the Clintons.

If you thing this whole post is a waste of time by a law professor who should worry about greater things, what do you make of a sitting Senator and woman who aspires to the biggest job in the world wasting valuable time over a Celine Dion song.

Re: "Ah, so you DO engage in exactly the same behavior you accuse 'leftists' of. Thought so."Pretty weak, JD. I trust your novels are better at plot and character development than this suggests.

Re: "I don't think it means what you think it means."Heh. You invent that saying, too? I careened through your blog, looking for evidence to refute a leftist viewpoint, but found none, none at all (opposing Hillary isn't itself a sign of moderation, some of the looniest left hates them some Hillary). It's a pretty standard lefty lovefest. I mean, seriously, you quote Tom Tomorrow?? Jesus Christ onroller skates, man, the lamest and leftiest cartoonist ever.

Gave me the creeps when Bill plaintively asks, "No onion rings?" and Hillary cooly shakes her head and says she's looking out for him. He looks like a whipped man and that serving of carrot sticks she forces on him rather shiny sickening and completely unnatural for American diner fare. It's like a Twilight Zone scene.

"I ordered for the table,” implies that Hillary presumes to know what we want and need. And she's already decided what that is- she scarcely looks at the menu. Hillary is Strong Woman, a strict mother-wife figure making our choices for us and dishing out our unpalatable forced "welfare" with an indulgent superior smile. Hillary and her nanny state.

Sopranos allusion or not, the menacing gangster who sits alone at the bar like a hard drinker, unfamily-style, and then who glares at Hillary just as dear hubby asks how the campaign is going is a stand-in for the angry, white reactionary Republican. Very VRWC stuff. Those mean men are threatening poor Hillary, again.

The Middle East is burning, civil rights are in the toilet and this (and Paris Hilton) are what passes for important stories.Ann, onion ring = vagina? Is that a batter dipped or breaded one. It would tell us a lot about your personal hygiene.

"Jesus, what IS this obsession you people have with the sex habits of so-called 'leftists'?"

Jesus, when DID the left become so prudish and humorless?

I'd much rather live in a world where the prime motivator is sex rather than politics.

And thank you for admitting that you and your kind are "so-called leftists". There's a distinction there, perhaps too subtle to be detected with the blunt tools you're working with. You're "so-called". You're not liberals and you're not even leftists. You're boring little 5 dollar political whores who will drop to your bruised knees and take whatever is shoved your way ... er...

Damn you, Bill Clinton! It's impossible to get a good sexual metaphor going when discussing the man who single-handedly uh... oh no!

Rhoades, sex habits of the Left haven't been under discussion. Bill's cheatin' heart is a matter of record and his Presidency had a crisis over his "use" of a WH intern on top of sexual harrassment charges-- because he was unfaithful, treated the Oval Office like a motel room and especially 'cause he lied to us and the law, etc.

OK, so there's some sexual innuendo about Bill in this spot. But the lamest point of this Hillary campaign vid is its written message. Hillary does a contrived flipping through the juke selections to highlight key words and phrases we should associate with her. Certainly, her interest in music is supposed to make her seem less stiff and more hip, but no sale. But it's the song titles (and artists) on which the camera focuses and that are to be at least subconsciously imprinted on us. In order, they are:

1) No, HBO is not elitist. In fact most average people, people who often barely make minimum wage, go without basics like health insurance or a workable car rather than give up their cable tv. It's an escape from the world. It's actually the anti-elitist escape. I know I have done it (and still sort of do).

And even if you don’t have HBO, have you been living under a rock? The last scene of the Sopranos has been replayed on you tube, cable news, Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, talked about on the late night talk shows ad nauseum, and around the workplace, every where… (I am currently working for HBO’s direct competitor and EVERYBODY is still talking about it.)

2)Tony/Carmella vs. Bill/Hillary: The end of the Sopranos solidified that fact that in the end, despite both their flaws and their moments of nobility, they are just people. Normal almost.

3) Who’s the better actor? Oh give me a break! You really think about this shit? How about neither. Hillary was connected, but there was something stiff about her delivery. (Not disingenuine, but nervous and unpracticed.) Bill was a little over the top. He his his first beat beautifully but the carrot moment was overplayed and forced. They had a great chemistry, though and each knew their objective in the scene. (Now THAT is an acting critique.)

4) Onion Rings. Seriously? The man has a heart condition. She gave him carrots. Tony Soprano ordered onion rings for the table. Bill can’t eat that shit anymore so when Hillary orders for the table, she orders carrots. They’re just carrots. Not some goofy metaphor for her health care policy. The man used to hoard greasy food until it nearly killed him. She orders him something healthy, we all get it, and it’s funny. It’s called comedy. And you’re. an. idiot.

5) Having Johnny Sack in the shot was not designed to create anxiety about an assasination. We, as viewers, recognized it was Johnny Sack, but if you’ve ever been to a diner there’s always that creepy guy around. He looks at them funny, they look at each other like, “who is that guy?” And if you are going to spoof the real thing, you have to have the “members only guy.” Who better than someone from the actual show.

Did it possibly occur to you that maybe she refused him onion rings because he's already had one heart attack and needs to lose some weight?

Here, I'll shoot a hole in your theory that "I doubt if any blogger will disagree with my assertion that, coming from Bill Clinton, the "O" of an onion ring is a vagina symbol"

I'm a blogger. And I rather vehemently disagree.

Also, I never saw The Sopranos. I don't get HBO. But I heard so much about it on the news that I'm not offended at the metaphor being lifted. And to me it worked even without the in-joke information.

That said, you're a disturbed individual with sexual issues who needs to seek counseling if you seriously saw the onion rings as you describe. And I'm still not supporting Hillary at this point. But I did like the ad.

A technical point: Well, but he does, or at least according to an article posted yesterday at nhpols.com, about a New Hampshire diner popular among those on the campaign trails:

Recently, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., made a surprise visit on a busy Saturday morning and Saitas said former President Clinton was in last Tuesday to dine at one of his favorite New Hampshire eateries.

"It was mellow," Saitas said of the visit. "His home away from home, that's what he called it."

And what did he eat? "No red meat. He's watching his health. He had chicken fingers, onion rings ... why do people always ask that?"

(This is something--oh, how fortuitous and delicious!--I noticed yesterday and linked to in my own post on this topic.)

I can't believe this is still being taken that seriously. Must be tiring.

the menacing gangster who sits alone at the bar like a hard drinker, unfamily-style, and then who glares at Hillary just as dear hubby asks how the campaign is going is a stand-in for the angry, white reactionary Republican. Very VRWC stuff. [Emphasis added.]

Jane: That's exactly how that character struck me, in context of the commercial.

I think some of you might be missing the real significance of the “no onion rings” – this is the candidate who promised to “take away things from you for the common good” and tries to relate nearly every issue back to health care and what she thinks people “need.”

I can just see the parody of this advertisement with Bill and Hilary look-alikes:

Hillary flips through a juke box with the names of her various scandals substituted for song titles. Bill sits down.

Bill gets up and angrily leaves the table and storms out of the restaurant as we see the people in the restaurant quickly distancing themselves from Hillary while Paulie Walnuts walks by her lonely booth knowingly shaking his head.

BTW: WTF is it with that bizarre look Senator Clinton gave Johnny Sacks? If that was supposed to be her “tough and determined look” it came off more as “sour and constipated.”

I know you've moved on to another post about the reactions to this post, but I'd rather react to the post than to the reactions....

A) The spot is lame. I'm not a Soprano's watcher, but I couldn't avoid the endless Soprano's finale discussions. So I noticed some of the references, but couldn't really relate. I think to someone like my wife (who would be a Hillary supporter, but is not a Soprano's watcher and DID avoid the discussions about the finale), this spot would do nothing.

B) The entire pick the theme song idea was cute. But do you really want your campaign to be "cute"? And the end result - If I needed anything else to turn me off to Hillary, Celene Dion certainly did it.

C) Your transparent taunting used to be entertaining, but, in the end, off-putting. I thought the little blog-wars were funny for a while, but since it's become clearer that you do it intentionally, it's less engaging. Yes, it's good to see hackery exposed, but I never really read these people anyway. I miss the subtlety.

Ms. Althouse, this is not meant as any kind of a put-down, but I think your analysis speaks to a need for a therapy.

If Tony Soprano can do it, so can you.

Again, I don't mean this as an insult. But if you're seeing carrot sticks -- the archetypical health food, thus a natural choice for a man who had a bypass recnetly -- and onion rings (which were in the original Sopranos scence) in terms of sexual imagery, I think you have some problems.

If you're already addressing these problems via therapy, then good for you and in that case, I'm sorry I brought this up.

Bill had a weight problem and had to have open heart surgery because of the damage he did to his ticker through poor diet. Further, the onion rings were, I believe, part of the Sopranos closing episode which the Hillary spot parodied.

I mean come ON - even if you are determined to overlook the obvious - which, judging by this post, you may well be - don't you know that the most universally accepted food representation of female genitalia is the taco?

Crikey, get a grip. This is about the lowest value-add post I think I've read in the past sixth months.

Oh yeah, this is some of that post modern semiotics shit that is supposed to prove how you're all smart and Deridian and Foucaultian and stuff like that.

I would say in this particular instance that Sartre promotes the use of capitalist feminism to analyse and modify class. Thus, Foucault’s model of nationalism implies that reality is impossible.

The economy, and eventually the collapse, of Lyotardist narrative depicted in Smith’s Clerks emerges again in Mallrats, although in a more mythopoetical sense. Therefore, Debord suggests the use of neocultural construction to challenge sexism.

Several desituationisms concerning Lyotardist narrative may be discovered. Thus, if nationalism holds, we have to choose between neocultural construction and Derridaist reading. And as the Hillary video makes clear, if postcultural nihilism holds, we have to choose between Lyotardist narrative and capitalist narrative. It could be said that the premise of nationalism suggests that society, somewhat surprisingly, has intrinsic meaning.

Do we really want to think of Bill and Hillary sitting in for Tony and Carmela? Tony is a monstrous criminal and Carmela willfully blinds herself to his horrible flaws so that she can keep living in a highly desirable house. Are these good associations for Hillary?

Ann, I'm surprised you missed this as did all the previous commentators: Hillary is playing the Tony part, and Bill the Carmela part, not the other way around! Hillary arrives first and chooses the song and the food. She is in control. That is what the ad is meant to convey. But I agree that being associated with either Tony or Carmela is not good for her image.

And it's similarly quite obvious to any reader that you're a blatant butch lesbian: you've got vagina on the mind, wear zero make up and keep you're hair extremely short (not to type-case blatant butch lesbians), and are absolutely obsessed with Hillary - her appearance, her relationship with her spouse, what you perceive to be her pop culture likes and influences, etc.

Goshdarnit Ann, YOU'RE IN LOVE WITH SENATOR CLINTON.

It's ok. Own it. Come to grips. I can't blame you; there's a lot to like.

I hope and pray that you don't teach 1L students any core classes. You need to re-attach yourself to the planet!

HBO reference, elitist? Well, sitting in your house, watching the repulsive show called American Idol, drinking wine, half tanked, and prattling on about the show in some fake aristocrat accent while video blogging is not elitist???

We don't think you're crazy, Althouse. We just think you're an attention-starved Narcissist who deliberately makes stupid statements so people with websites can make fun of you. Then you claim, "It was all just a joke!" the next day. It happened with Jessica Valenti and you're doing it again.

Holy crap! You've got way too much time on your hands. You wrote "the "O" of an onion ring is a vagina symbol"? You know, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar! Well, maybe not the best analogy, but still. Seems like you have vagina on the mind.

The onion ring is just and onion ring and someone trying to read something more than what it is into a silly commercial is trying way too hard to be "insightful". I can't decide if it is attention you desire that makes you actually spend that much time writing something so fatuous or maybe it's just boredom brought on by insecurity.

Shinobi said..."Uhh... not to get personal or anything... but... Is your vagina a circle? Because mine REALLY isn't. Maybe if onions were more... vagina Shaped this analogy would work. Maybe an anus? Was Bill into the buttsex?"

Why do you think I mentioned cigars? Especially since I followed it with "Maybe that's not the best analogy." It's called wit and irony and you certainly don't have the market cornered on either of those.

Your never to old to learn. I checked your background and it is impressive. Yet the direction of your comments is sick. I understand now why the infection of our youth by so called educated and respectful people has caused the mess we're in. A President who is a drunk and coward, First Lady an open liar, VP is really Satan and the rest. I know many Republicans and none of them are like the examples that are published. The GOP ran on family values and religion yet all the actions done are those of evil. I just don't understand the fixation reporter/journalist have on Bill Clinton. Men are acting like BrokeBack and woman are acting like sluts. The United States should clean itself up before telling others what to do. Your comments are sick but it shows who you really are. It also shows what you think of yourself as a woman.

i don't know ann, but when i hear of onion rings the first thing i think of isn't my vagina.you might try some of the over the counter creams or going to the dr. if that doesn't clear it up.just a suggestion.

Would all of you conservative women please stop obsessing about vaginas or come out of the closet for christ's sake! Anyone who could even write that sentence about "O"s in her blog has a real need to talk about her lesbian/bi issues. You need to also realize that if this is the best you can do against HIllary, you might as well start blogging your next bit for after she wins the whole thing! Ya got nothing but your pathetic take on a TV show? Are you fucking kidding me? I can't wait to open the champagne on election night and usher in the 21st century for real, with us in the US catching up to the rest of the world - like the Phillipines, India, the UK, and every other country that has decided that the conservative talking points about women being inferior to men are bullshit. How about we really lead for a change? You can start by backing the most qualified candidate with the most experience - Hillary Clinton. I gotta agree with the first poster here. You are bug. Fuck. Crazy.

andrewsac said..."Would all of you conservative women please stop obsessing about vaginas or come out of the closet for christ's sake! Anyone who could even write that sentence about "O"s in her blog has a real need to talk about her lesbian/bi issues..."

So, the homophobia of the left emerges alongside the misogyny. There's this notion that because you're on the left these things don't count against you. But they do. Shame!

I, too, think Hillary was wrong to take this approach.I heard General Taguba, who did the Abu Graib investigation, quoted on the radio yesterday as saying that when he was warned by General Abzaid that he and his report would be investigated:"I'd been in the Army thirty-two years by then, and it was the first time that I thought I was in the Mafia."Of course he hadn't been in the Bush army prior to that.Why would Hillary want to align herself so closely with this disasterous administration?I don't get it and I'm not even planning to vote for her.Unless she makes it to the general election, that is.